PD Photo/Joshua GunterWorkers make progress on the new medical mart and Convention Center in downtown Cleveland. This photo was taken Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011, looking southeast from Mall A.

Forget the January blahs of a lake-effect winter. From reimagined neighborhoods and a repopulated downtown to the immigrant-driven entrepreneurial clusters around Cleveland State and Case Western Reserve universities, a Cleveland renaissance has begun. By the time spring's lilies and hyacinths add their fragrance, the contours of a more responsive county government and too-long-delayed infrastructure investments may already be changing how Northeast Ohio looks, feels and operates -- if, as a region, we recognize the opportunities and create the partnerships to make them happen.

The corollary of master investor Warren Buffett's dictum to "be greedy when others are fearful" is that cities fallen on hard times need to be at their most imaginative and daring when times are bleakest.

Northeast Ohio has the chance to lead the way nationally on sustainability, next-generation materials, energy innovation, entrepreneurship and urban revitalization as an engine for regional growth.

From urban green spaces to assets such as Lake Erie, the NASA Glenn Research Center and the area's biotech anchors, the promise of a reinvigorated Greater Cleveland that can compete globally and attract new residents with its arts districts, plentiful fresh water and livable neighborhoods is not an idle dream.

And this year, The Plain Dealer editorial board intends to champion just such change with a sustained editorial focus and civic engagement strategy focused on the future and on bringing the community together to break through old barriers of insularity, racial and economic division, fragmented governance and corruption.

In early February, the board will publish its goals and agenda for 2011 -- the problems that most urgently need fixing, but also the policies and approaches most likely to yield meaningful, across-the-board change, keeping in mind that change is a process, not a one-time action. You can find a list and brief biographies of members of The Plain Dealer editorial board here.

Then there are goals from last year barely begun, including transforming the Cleveland public schools, welcoming skilled immigrants and immigrant-entrepreneurs, tying Cleveland's riverfront and lakefront land into an integrated public-access and economic development strategy and making sure that major infrastructure investments, such as the Opportunity Corridor, a more pedestrian-friendly West Shoreway and a rebuilt Inner Belt Bridge add to Cleveland's liveability, bikeability and marketability.

In all of these endeavors, we need your help, your input and your ideas. As with last year, readers' thoughts and suggestions will help guide our editorial priorities for the year. Your ideas can stretch our minds and imaginations about what is possible and desirable.

We'd like to know what you think are the Cleveland area's biggest challenges and opportunities, and how you'd approach the process of change if you were calling the shots. The wittiest, wisest, most original and innovative ideas may find their way into print or online.

Last year, our advocacy editorials helped unify Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland's administration and Republican state lawmakers behind an effective joint strategy for voter renewal of Third Frontier bond money. We were effective watchdogs of the public interest in helping persuade some Democratic members of the newly elected Cuyahoga County Council to abandon a clueless plan to meet privately as a caucus to choose council leadership.

This page also kept the focus on the Cleveland schools as CEO Eugene Sanders unveiled a highly touted transformation plan, by highlighting both the plan's potential to refocus dollars on educating kids effectively and the district's failure to clearly and unambiguously address administrative bloat and inflexibility in teacher contracts. And that was before Sanders' stunning announcement in December that he was leaving the district partway through its first year of change.

We also will continue to highlight what already makes Cleveland special as a place to live, raise children, work and play, and how those assets can be preserved, from the Cleveland Orchestra's innovative concerts expanding the boundaries of classical music audiences to the creative projects, including wineries, restaurants and specialty farms within Cleveland's borders, that will keep it a leader in the "locavore" farm-to-table movement -- and provide jobs, besides.

Change requires setting goals, finding the right partners and keeping the focus on the future. We can do that together. So keep the ideas coming, and stay tuned.

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